Betty Hughes, a former assistant travel editor and writer for The Times, has died. She was 73. Hughes died Sunday at St. John's Medical Center in Santa Monica, according to her daughter Megin. A cancer survivor since she was first diagnosed in her mid-30s, she succumbed to a melanoma that was diagnosed last November. A native of Cleveland, Hughes started her career as a reporter and editor with the Cleveland Press in the 1960s.

When travel writers and tour operators come to town for their annual convention next week, Los Angeles boosters plan to show them that the city is more than just Hollywood. It's also Pasadena and Long Beach. The agency charged with persuading people to visit L.A. will have a captive audience with the International Pow Wow, as the confab is called. And LA Inc., the name for the city's convention and visitors bureau, knows better than to restrict its pitch to city limits.

TRAVEL websites are evolving with the times. The sites, usually static overviews of destinations, are getting a new twist. Distinguished travel guidebook writers are presenting information about their geographical specialties directly on the Internet. And they're passing along comments on issues of the day. The initial results are so promising that more travel writers might be tempted to do the same. Today, I'll focus on one of these new sites. Written and updated by Tom Brosnahan, www.

A right-wing paramilitary group on Thursday released a Torrance travel author and two other Americans kidnapped near the Colombia-Panama border earlier this week, a government official confirmed. Robert Young Pelton, 47, author of the book "The World's Most Dangerous Places," Oakland firefighter Megan A.

See the world for free. That's what many people think travel writing is about. Flash a business card with "travel writer" printed on it and the candy shop opens, miraculous upgrades occur, champagne appears at your door, guides show you places and things other tourists don't get to see. But as a matter of ethics, many magazines and newspapers, including this one, don't allow writers to accept freebies. The company pays expenses for staff writers like me so they are beholden to no one.

Please do not pay any attention to Eleanore D. Griffith's negative comments on Christopher Reynolds' experience and intelligence ("High Culture and Cuisine at Oxford," Letters, Jan. 20). I am delighted every time I read his articles and find him to be curious, observant and articulate. His approach to his work is refreshing. KRIS KAPP Irvine After reading Eleanore Griffith's letter lambasting Christopher Reynolds' article on "his" Oxford experience, I wondered just what kind of person could write a letter like that.

I enjoyed the final story from Mike McIntyre in the Wander Year series ("The End of the Road," Dec. 31) because he put the yearlong trip in such nice perspective. It was uplifting to read and thoughtful. I have enjoyed the weekly series and will miss it. I opened that Sunday's Travel section disappointed that I could not follow their trip further, wondering where he and Andrea Boyles were that week. Their story touched many people, especially those of us who have not traveled around the world.

For more than a month now, Fred and Mary Ann Kirschhoch insist, they have scoured every memory of their daughter's 29 years of life. They have sifted the sparse, last-known details of it here in this mecca of hedonism and playful sin. And the New Jersey couple have stopped at nothing in their search for any clue that would explain how, from her conservative roots in suburban New Jersey to this Jamaican beach resort, Claudia Kirschhoch could have simply vanished from the face of the Earth.

Regarding the Wander Year weekly series by Mike McIntyre: From Fiji we heard how he got sick because the Fijians have poor hygiene habits. New Zealand was boring because it's so beautiful. India is full of con artists and poverty. For an entire year we get to read McIntyre's view of what's wrong with the rest of the world. He would not be my choice for a traveling companion. KAICHI GORO Los Angeles As an English teacher for 20 years and a world traveler, I must commend McIntyre for being one of the best travel writers I have ever read.